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Re: [ox-en] IPR/monopoly rights



On Sat, 23 Aug 2003, Stefan Merten wrote:

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Hi Graham and all!

Last month (28 days ago) Graham Seaman wrote:
I hate having discussions about patents and copyright where you get
sucked into using the term 'intellectual property rights', but could 
never think of a good alternative.

Me too. In German the term is known as "Geistiges Eigentum" where
"geistig" has slightly different connotations than "intellectual".
It's horrible.

'spiritual', 'sacred'? if that's the association, yes, it's even worse
than english ;-(


I was always a bit unhappy about rms's line that the reason saying
'intellectual property rights' is wrong is not only that it prejudges the
issue of 'property', but also that it lumps together things (patents and
copyright in particular) that have nothing in common. They obviously do
have something in common - they give people a legally enforced monopoly.
So, instead of talking about 'IPRs' I plan to use 'monopoly rights' as the
generic name. Is there any obvious flaw in that?

IMHO the term 'monopoly rights' lacks of its intended relation to
information goods. Otherwise I find the term correct.

Are monopoly rights granted for anything except information? I mean, in
the sense of general laws allowing people to create a monoploy (hence
'rights') rather than the specific monopoly over a particular thing
assigned to the state (eg. until recently the state monopoly over the
phone, postal, and electricity systems). Unless I'm missing something
monopoly rights are only legally granted for information. They are the one
exception to the end of legal monopoly that came with the bourgeois
revolutions (practical monopolies are usually technically illegal, even if
M$^H^H companies never actually get punished much for creating them). So
if the oekonux society is to extend/realize current freedoms, it needs to
abolish monopoly rights ;-)


Graham

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